


You Fight Like an Animal

by Acureformyboredom



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Animal Metaphors, Imagery, Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Some writing to get my groove back, This is weird, keith likes lance, slight - Freeform, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:01:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22469782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acureformyboredom/pseuds/Acureformyboredom
Summary: Keith has noticed some things and has an interesting way of looking at them.This is just imagery and metaphor really.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 54





	You Fight Like an Animal

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a little writing to get my groove back after not writing for a while. So be gentle please!  
> Also, it's not beta read as always please mind the errors.
> 
> All characters and settings are property of the respected owners. No copyright indented, just a bit of fun!

It’s interesting to watch, Keith thinks, that once you spend enough time with someone, or a group of someone’s, that you recognize the way they move. How they push forward or pull back, how they walk, how they laugh.

Keith begins to notice this about his fellow paladins - friends - _family_. The way they move, and how that movement is unique to them. The tense slouch of Hunk’s shoulders when he gets nervous is different to Pidge’s axouis mumbling under her breath. The furrow between Lance’s eyebrows and how he withdraws inside himself when he gets angry, is different to Shiro’s clenched jaws and tight fists. 

He’s found the more he notices the more he catalogues - Allura rubs her neck when she’s lying, Lance walks with his chest puffed when he’s deflecting, Coran clasps his hands behind his back and pauses when he’s thinking- and the more they begin to separate from the mundane collection that has always been _other people_ to Keith. Their faces become brighter, clearer in his mind, more real, more important. 

It’s more clear during battle. He’s found he unintentionally likens them to other things that correlate in his mind. He can almost hear Shiro’s claws elongate and scratch while moving through the battlefield, he can imagine it perfectly, as Shiro’s lips pull back in a snarl, his hackles rising. Keith, in his mind, just knows - _knows_ \- Shiro has a wolf inside him, inside his soul. A protective, wise, resilient wolf resting just under the surface of his pale scarred worn skin, woven around his bloody heart, glowing - _roaring_ \- in his eyes. 

Keith sees the faux face drawn delicately across Hunk’s paper thin wings as he flutters from enemy to enemy, deceivingly big. He’s prey too smart to be noticed, too delicate, too relentless, unstoppable. Keith can feel the gentle flap of air across his face as Hunk rushes to provide backup and support, evading and retreating, only to swoop back in surprisingly, pushing forward, unnoticed but _there_. So simple and overlooked but so smart and so strong, hidden but so vibrant. 

It seems like he rarely sees Pidge fighting. She disappears then reappears at will. So stealthy that she can sneak past her own team. She waits patiently and observes, critiques, analyze. Then, when she sees her opening, the weak exposed underbelly, a distracted turn of the chin, she strikes. So quick, so deadly, so fast you miss it if you blink. Her scales glisten brightly as the stars reveal her carefully hidden position, only when she commands, only when she plans. Her sharp and venomous teeth latching on and crushing. She can look so small sometimes, so fragile, only to extend her jaw and consume wholly. Licking out her quick tounge in an intelligent quip, laughing while she retreats into the darkness once again, as fast as she struck, to scout, waiting once again for her enemy to get stupid and confident.

He can see how they change, how they can go from people to these - hybrids - in his mind, in his eyes, as they fought, how they become something so different, how they move different. Even the way they approach missions that are meant to be as non violent as possible, close combat, it all looks new to him. Hunk and Pidge both avoid face to face conflict and clashing directly with enemies outside the lions. And if they get backed into a corner, caught with no way out, they quickly flash intimidating wings, snap a quick bite with paralyzing venom as a means of defense, to distract their opponents long enough to escape, to flee to reach and complete their true objectives. 

Shiro on the other hand, is viscous and defensive, so fiercely protective with the goal of striking fear into the minds of those who threaten his pack. He fights to teach a lesson, to make enemies so afraid they tremble in his gaze. He guards and digs his claws into the ground, becoming unmovable, proving his superiority. 

Even as Keith’s vision evolves and his view of the world and the people he cares about becomes double and shifted, there remains a constant point, unfocused. 

When Keith looks at Lance, he sees _nothing_. 

Not to mean Lance is invisible to him, or common enough he bleeds away into the - _other people_ \- it’s actually the complete opposite. Keith’s gaze always inevitably returns to the blue paladin, fixing on his beautiful dark skin, or his deep blue eyes, and chestnut hair, his soothing voice and his alluring laugh, it all seems irresistible to Keith. So unique and captivating, that every time the hybrid starts to flicker, to take shape, to bleed into colour, Lance does something to draw his attention back to _him_ , and the nonsensical incomplete vision fizzes out, hidden away again in that beautiful boy. 

When Keith looks at Lance, he also sees _everything_.

Keith, at first, thinks it’s him, himself that’s the reason he can’t see Lance fully, that he’s too infatuated to look beyond the surface. However, one day, while trying to focus on the flickering surrounding Lance he finally realizes the true reason. 

Looking at Lance is what he imagines learning about what wild animals looks like, by watching cartoon animals instead of going to the zoo or out in nature. So obviously false. Pretend, loose enough to resemble reality but wrong enough to be off putting.

Sometimes Keith can see the predatory way Lance will attack, swift and brutal like a shark emerging from the deep, turning the water red. Sometimes he sees the wise and calculated way Lance will swoop down quick and sure, snatch up his enemy and retreats to the sky’s with wet talons and old eyes. Keith has seen the clenched jaw and fearlessness of a banger fighting lions in the confident placement of his gun and glint in his eyes as he faces up to countless enemies. There are spots and strips, wings and fur, slit eyes and scales but they all fade in the end. Fidgety and plastic, like a mask of a superhero cracked and broken.

Keith comes to the conclusion that he will never figure out the shape of Lance behind his eyes, in his heart, without digging and caressing it out of him, learning everything Lance would be willing to reveal to him. So he stops looking and reaching out for it. Doesn’t try to uncover what is chained down and hidden behind bars within this wonder of a boy. Keith will take him as he is, warm and kind and a little bit broken, but so perfect and just so ... _human._

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed my selfish writing!


End file.
